---
title: "ChatGPT Enterprise vs self-hosted AI: which is right for a company?"
description: "ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude for Work and similar services give you the newest closed models with no hardware to run, billed per seat or per token. Self-hosted AI gives you full control of data, fixed costs and no vendor lock-in, using open models on your own hardware. Many companies use both: cloud models for the hardest tasks, local models for sensitive data and high-volume work."
url: https://exolabs.net/faq/chatgpt-enterprise-vs-self-hosted-ai/
updated: 2026-10-26
---

# ChatGPT Enterprise vs self-hosted AI: which is right for a company?

ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude for Work and similar services give you the newest closed models with no hardware to run, billed per seat or per token. Self-hosted AI gives you full control of data, fixed costs and no vendor lock-in, using open models on your own hardware. Many companies use both: cloud models for the hardest tasks, local models for sensitive data and high-volume work.

Choose a cloud service when you need the single best model for hard reasoning, have no data restrictions, and usage is light or unpredictable.

Choose self-hosted when data cannot leave your network, usage is heavy and steady, you need a model that will not change under you, or per-token bills are growing fast.

A gateway in front of both lets you route each request to the right place and keep one set of logs.

**Where exo fits:** exo is the self-hosted side: a cluster of Macs serving open models through the same API formats as OpenAI and Anthropic, so apps can route between local and cloud without rewrites.

Sources:
- [exo on GitHub (README)](https://github.com/exo-explore/exo)
- [LiteLLM proxy (open-source AI gateway)](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/simple_proxy)

Page: https://exolabs.net/faq/chatgpt-enterprise-vs-self-hosted-ai/ · Updated 2026-10-26 · Deployments: https://exolabs.net/#business (sales@exolabs.net)